SPORTS
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
East Oregonian
B3
Baylor jumps Zags to give AP
poll record-tying seventh No. 1
By DAVE SKRETTA
Associated Press
AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid reacts after win-
ning the NFL AFC Championship game Sunday against the
Tennessee Titans in Kansas City, MO. The Chiefs won 35-24 to
advance to the Super Bowl.
Mahomes gives Reid
best hope to win that
elusive Super Bowl
By ROB MAADDI
AP Pro Football Writer
Andy Reid revitalized the
Kansas City Chiefs the same
way he did with the Philadel-
phia Eagles.
He’s one win away from
finishing the job.
The only thing miss-
ing from Reid’s impres-
sive resume is a Super Bowl
title. He is seventh on the
career wins list and every
coach ahead of him has a
championship.
Thanks
to
Patrick
Mahomes, Reid gets another
shot when the Chiefs (14-4)
play the San Francisco 49ers
(15-3) in Miami on Feb. 2.
Mahomes did it all in
Kansas City’s 35-24 victory
over Tennessee in the AFC
championship game Sunday.
He threw for 294 yards and
three touchdowns and led
the team with 53 yards rush-
ing, including a nifty 27-yard
score.
Reid, the quarterback
guru who helped develop
Brett Favre and Donovan
McNabb, saw tremendous
potential in Mahomes when
he traded up to the No. 10
spot in the 2017 NFL draft to
grab the former Texas Tech
star. It was the same fore-
sight he had in 1999 when,
as a rookie head coach in
Philadelphia, Reid selected
McNabb with the No. 2 over-
all pick even though the city
wanted Ricky Williams.
Reid was patient with
McNabb, holding him out
of the starting lineup until
Week 10 while veteran and
longtime backup quarterback
Doug Pederson groomed the
rookie. Once McNabb took
over, the Eagles were on
their way. In 2000, Reid and
McNabb led Philadelphia to
the first of five straight play-
off appearances. They went
to four consecutive NFC title
games, losing the first three,
including two at home.
The Eagles got past that
hurdle after the 2004 season,
advancing to the Super Bowl
only to lose 24-21 to the New
England Patriots.
Reid led them to the brink
one more time four years
later as a No. 6 seed before
they lost to Arizona as a road
favorite in the NFC champi-
onship game.
The Eagles won their last
division title under Reid with
Michael Vick at quarterback
in 2010. Vick revived his
career in Philadelphia after
missing two seasons while
serving a prison sentence. He
had his best all-around sea-
son with Reid.
In 14 seasons in Phila-
delphia, Reid led the Eagles
to six NFC East titles, nine
playoff appearances and five
conference
championship
games. He won more games
than any coach in franchise
history but couldn’t win the
only one that mattered to
Eagles fans.
Still, he played a role in
helping Philadelphia get its
first Super Bowl title because
Pederson, Reid’s protege,
was the coach who guided
the Eagles to that elusive
championship two years ago,
with backup quarterback
Nick Foles beating the Patri-
ots. Reid drafted Foles in the
third round in his final sea-
son in Philadelphia and per-
suaded him not to retire in
2016 when he brought him to
Kansas City to back up Alex
Smith.
Reid was fired by the
Eagles after a 4-12 season in
2012, the year his oldest son,
Garrett, died from a drug
overdose at training camp.
He quickly landed in
Kansas City, taking over a
2-14 team, and turned the
Chiefs into a winner even
faster than he did the Eagles.
The Chiefs went 11-5 in
Reid’s first year.
But Reid was 1-4 in the
playoffs with Smith at quar-
terback in his first five sea-
sons in Kansas City. He
drafted Mahomes to take the
team to the next level. After
making him sit behind Smith
for a season, just like McNabb
waited in Philadelphia, Reid
took a risk. He traded Smith
away following consecutive
division titles and handed the
offense to Mahomes.
All Mahomes did was
win the NFL MVP award in
his first year as the starter in
2018. The Chiefs fell short at
home against New England
in the AFC title game last sea-
son, dropping Reid to 1-5 in
conference championships.
They couldn’t be stopped
this time.
Led by the dynamic
Mahomes, Reid’s offense has
scored 86 points in two play-
off games. The NFL’s No. 2
defense awaits. The 49ers
allowed 281.8 yards per game
in the regular season, sec-
ond only to the Patriots. They
held Minnesota to 10 points
last week and Aaron Rodgers
and the Packers to 20 points
after taking a 27-0 halftime
lead.
Reid is 22-5 in his career
when he has two weeks to
prepare for an opponent, so
it’ll be an interesting chess
match against San Francisco
defensive coordinator Robert
Saleh.
The only coach who
waited longer than Reid for
a return trip to the Super
Bowl was his friend and for-
mer Eagles coach Dick Ver-
meil. After Philadelphia lost
to Oakland in the 1981 Super
Bowl, Vermeil led the St.
Louis Rams to victory over
Tennessee following the 1999
season.
It’s Big Red’s turn to win
the big game.
Baylor and Gonzaga
were the only two teams in
the top five that took care of
business last week.
That doesn’t mean they
didn’t move around, too.
The Bears (15-1) leaped
over the Bulldogs and into
the No. 1 spot in The Asso-
ciated Press men’s college
basketball poll on Monday,
using wins over Iowa State
and Oklahoma State to give
the Top 25 its seventh team
on top this season. That
matches the record set in
1983 for the most No. 1s in
the history of the poll, which
dates to the 1948-49 season.
Gonzaga (20-1) was
merely a victim of its con-
ference schedule. The Bull-
dogs blew out Santa Clara
and BYU, but just enough
voters considered those
wins to be less impressive
than the Bears’ perfect Big
12 start. Baylor received
33 first-place votes and
had 1,591 points from the
65-member media panel
while Gonzaga received 31
first-place votes for 1,588
points.
“It takes a team to win,”
said Baylor coach Scott
Drew, whose team also
reached the top of the poll
two years ago. “As a coach,
you’re just really proud
when different people step
up, especially guys that
have been working hard.”
The rest of the top five
looks a whole lot differ-
ent after Duke, Auburn and
Butler all lost both of their
games last week.
Kansas (14-3) rose three
spots to No. 3 after victo-
ries over Oklahoma and
Texas, the latter requiring
a big comeback in Aus-
tin. San Diego State (19-
0) remained perfect with
wins over Fresno State and
AP Photo/Jerry Larson, File
Baylor forward Tristan Clark (25) is guarded by Iowa State forward George Conditt IV (4)
during the second half of a Jan. 15, 2020, game in Waco, Texas.
Nevada, and Florida State
(16-2) barged into the fifth
spot after it beat reigning
national champion Virginia
and survived overtime to
best Miami.
The Seminoles haven’t
lost since playing Indiana in
the Big Ten-ACC Challenge
the first week of December.
Louisville, which tasted
the top spot earlier this sea-
son, jumped five spots to
sixth after beating Pitts-
burgh in overtime and han-
dling the Blue Devils. Day-
ton was next, followed by
Duke, Villanova and Seton
Hall to round out the top 10.
Duke also lost to Clem-
son earlier in the week,
sending
coach
Mike
Krzyzewski’s team tum-
bling five spots.
“We just have to get
older,” he said after the Blue
Devils’ 79-73 loss to the
Cardinals on Saturday at
Cameron Indoor Stadium.
“I’m really up on my team.
It’s a long journey. I’ve
never told you that we’re
great. It’s a process for us,
playing these two teams.
Getting beat, we have to
learn from it and move on.
It’s a long journey.”
Krzyzewski’s
team
wasn’t alone in getting a
tough lesson last week.
Fourth-ranked Auburn fell
all the way to No. 16 after
losing a pair of blowouts
to Alabama and Florida,
and fifth-ranked Butler was
bounced all the way to 13th
after the Bulldogs followed
up a loss to Seton Hall by
getting soundly beaten by
DePaul.
“It’s the time of the year
when we should be trying to
elevate our play, and we’re
not,” said Tigers coach
Bruce Pearl, whose team
had won its first 15 games.
“Obviously, there’s a pretty
big price on our head being
ranked fourth in the coun-
try. And so I think we have
to respond to the step-up
that we saw this week from
both Alabama and Florida.”
Here’s a closer look at the
other big news in another
fresh Top 25:
Rutgers on the rise
The Scarlet Knights
bounced back from a loss to
Illinois by beating Indiana
and Minnesota at home, run-
ning their record at the RAC
to 13-0 this season — the
best start in school history.
That was enough to get Rut-
gers (14-4) into the poll at
No. 24 for the first time since
the final poll of the 1978-79
season. And with Seton Hall
at No. 10, the state of New
Jersey has two teams ranked
for the first time since the
Pirates were joined by Princ-
eton in the last poll of the
1990-91 season.
Other newcomers
Iowa, which has been in
and out of the poll all sea-
son, made the biggest jump
back in at No. 19 after its
win over then-No. 19 Mich-
igan. The Hawkeyes were
joined by No. 22 Arizona
— which beat a ranked team
in Colorado — and No. 25
Houston, which romped
through SMU and then-No.
16 Wichita State last week.
Pendleton finishes 2-3 at Oregon Classic
Mac-Hi’s Jesse
Jones posts 5-0
record on the
weekend
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
REDMOND — Junior
Isaac Urbina went 4-1 on the
weekend, and Pendleton fin-
ished 2-3 in the 5A bracket
at the Oregon Classic at the
Deschutes County Fair &
Expo Center.
Urbina had three pins and
one major decision among
his wins. His lone loss was
to Crescent Valley’s Hayden
Walters in their second pool
match at 182 pounds.
The Bucks opened with
a win over Hood River Val-
ley 37-36, and then dropped
matches to Crescent Val-
ley (72-6) and Ridgeview
(66-18).
In the first match of the
championship round, the
Bucks beat Milwaukie 42-37.
Pendleton got wins from
Jack Lieuallen (126), Collin
Primus (132), Matthew Rob-
ertson (145), Danner Hamil-
ton (152) and Urbina (195) in
its match against Milwaukie.
In the quarterfinals against
Crescent Valley, a 63-6 loss,
the Bucks got a win from
Urbina at 182 pounds, where
he pinned Konrad Hoyer in
2:35. Pendleton forfeited six
matches to the Raiders.
Lieuallen, a freshman,
finished 3-2 on the weekend.
Crescent Valley won the
5A division of the tourna-
ment with a 6-0 record. The
Raiders beat Crook County
50-21 in the championship
match.
In the 4A division,
Mac-Hi/Griswold recorded
a 1-4 record, with their lone
win coming over Mashfield,
51-18, in the consolation
semifinals.
The Pioneers lost pool
matches to Tillamook (67-
12), Estacada (55-24) and
Philomath (58-12).
Mac-Hi dropped its quar-
terfinal match to Molalla
54-24.
Jesse Jones (145/152) was
5-0 on the weekend, with
four pins and one decision.
His quickest pin came against
Philomath’s David Griffith in
1:06.
Girls wrestling
Hermiston
had
three
wrestlers place fourth, and
the Bulldogs finished ninth
in the team standings with 77
points Saturday at the Othello
Lady Huskies Invite, which
featured 56 teams.
Hanford won the team
title with 163 points, followed
by Sunnyside (156.5) and
Othello (116).
Amree Braithwaite was
fourth at 140 pounds. She
recorded two pins and an
overtime win on the day.
Halle Thomas finished
fourth at 145 pounds. She had
three pins and one win by
injury default.
At 235, Macy Morgan
was fourth after winning two
of four matches.
Jazmin Deike turned in a
seventh-place finish at 190,
winning two of four matches,
both by fall.
Prep roundup: Stanfield hosts Pilot Rock on Friday
Continued from Page B1
following Saturday’s road
loss to Horizon Christian.
Javon Curiel posted
13 points, including three
treys, to lead Echo.
Echo (0-16, 0-6) hosts
Condon/Wheeler on Friday
at 7:30 p.m.
GRANT UNION 61,
W ESTON-MCEW EN
30 — Aiden Wolf fin-
ished with a team-best nine
points as Weston-McEwen
suffered its fourth Blue
Mountain Conference loss
in John Day on Saturday
afternoon.
The TigerScots (3-12,
0-4 BMC) travel to Enter-
prise on Tuesday at
7:30 p.m.
Girls basketball
WALLOWA 66, NIXY-
AAWII 53 — Sophie
Bronson had a team-high
20 points, but the Golden
Eagles could not overcome
their Wallowa hosts on Sat-
urday afternoon.
“It was a back and forth
game for the most part, but
we just didn’t rebound well
enough to win,” Nixyaawii
head coach Jeremy Mad-
dern said. “We got off to a
real bad start, but we fought
back to make it a game.”
Kyella Picard finished
with 11 points, and Mack-
enzie Kiona had 10.
Nixyaawii (6-7, 2-1
OOL) hosts White Swan on
Wednesday at 5 p.m.
STANFIELD
49,
ENTERPRISE 31 — Ken-
dra Hart scored 18 points
to aid in Stanfield’s fourth
Blue Mountain Conference
win on Saturday afternoon.
Nyah Tejada chipped in
11 points, and Alexis Shelby
grabbed 11 rebounds.
Stanfield (13-3, 4-1
BMC) hosts Pilot Rock on
Friday at 6 p.m.
GRANT UNION 42,
WESTON-MCEWEN 16
— The TigerScots fell to a
three-game Blue Mountain
Conference skid on Satur-
day, as Cloe Davis posted
a team-high five points on
their road loss on Saturday.
Weston-McEwen (2-13,
0-4 BMC) travels to Enter-
prise on Friday for a 6 p.m.
tip-off.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Savannah Sharp (10), of Stanfield, goes up for a shot during
Saturday’s Blue Mountain Conference game against Enter-
prise.